diff --git a/diffcore-delta.c b/diffcore-delta.c
index c30b56e983bda3..7136c3dd203592 100644
--- a/diffcore-delta.c
+++ b/diffcore-delta.c
@@ -159,6 +159,10 @@ static struct spanhash_top *hash_chars(struct repository *r,
 		n = 0;
 		accum1 = accum2 = 0;
 	}
+	if (n > 0) {
+		hashval = (accum1 + accum2 * 0x61) % HASHBASE;
+		hash = add_spanhash(hash, hashval, n);
+	}
 	QSORT(hash->data, (size_t)1ul << hash->alloc_log2, spanhash_cmp);
 	return hash;
 }
diff --git a/t/t4001-diff-rename.sh b/t/t4001-diff-rename.sh
index 3dc90470446dbb..5c61f2cce420ca 100755
--- a/t/t4001-diff-rename.sh
+++ b/t/t4001-diff-rename.sh
@@ -286,4 +286,23 @@ test_expect_success 'basename similarity vs best similarity' '
 	test_cmp expected actual
 '
 
+test_expect_success 'last line matters too' '
+	test_write_lines a 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 >nonewline &&
+	printf "git ignores final up to 63 characters if not newline terminated" >>nonewline &&
+	git add nonewline &&
+	git commit -m "original version of file with no final newline" &&
+
+	# Change ONLY the first character of the whole file
+	test_write_lines b 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 >nonewline &&
+	printf "git ignores final up to 63 characters if not newline terminated" >>nonewline &&
+	git add nonewline &&
+	git mv nonewline still-no-newline &&
+	git commit -a -m "rename nonewline -> still-no-newline" &&
+	git diff-tree -r -M01 --name-status HEAD^ HEAD >actual &&
+	cat >expected <<-\EOF &&
+	R097	nonewline	still-no-newline
+	EOF
+	test_cmp expected actual
+'
+
 test_done